Is it just all in my head? Or is it that i think about things that people have never said? Is there something wrong with the way things are, at least partially, and i am quite far. A lot of times i have to work long hours to resolve issues created by Generalists from who knows which domain. Filtering out irrelevant material teaches you what is relevant. When you spend all your time providing creative services, it’s quite hard for the people who consume your service to understand that what you are doing could be done easier if it was done with the correct process and right resources. In my experience this occurs, since most individual’s attention is elsewhere such as the final output and not the creative process. Chasing imaginary rainbows is not going to solve any issues in any domain.

The ‘State of Ignorance’ is not so much of a shame, as being in the ‘State of – Unwilling to learn’ Perhaps even more dangerous is the ‘Who Cares’ attitude or – state of mind. By going through various trials and tribulations, many people come to the conclusion that they are not aware of everything around them, and that there are forces and ideas that are quite capable of harming us, yet people are unable to recognize them, due to their own pre-conceptions and limited understanding of things.

Many people feel like they need to be better a human being, at least over the course of time. I have superficially explored Secularism, Marxism, Communism, even briefly read through the works of Nietzsche. Studying movements as Minimalism, Cubism, Post-Modernism, and Abstraction. I felt there was some truth in Cubism, since it offered a multi-faceted view of things. 3D surfaces represented on a 2D plane, but it too was too confusing for a common to understand, let alone even some artists have a hard time dealing with it. Instead of depicting objects from one viewpoint, Cubism depicts the subject from a multitude of viewpoints to represent the subject in a greater context, hoping to show a greater truth.

If one looks at Guernica by Pablo Picasso, one most moving and powerful anti-war paintings in history. The painting shows the suffering of people, animals, and buildings wrenched by violence and chaos. As a young child i have fond memories for breaking things to see what was inside them, searching for the inner meaning, i am not sure why. I have noticed that i have an investigative approach to things, as an adult i have seen many children break toys open to see what was inside them. Many others play with Lego, just the repetitive ‘Making and Unmaking’ seems like a big achievement for them.

Ego-Centricity is dangerous, in the sense that we have natural restriction in our perception caused by the simple fact that we can only see the world from our perspective. It takes special effort to see the world from any perspective other than through our own eyes. Ego-centric individuals suffer from vanity and self-conceit. Allmost all ego-centric individuals are unaware of one’s faults and shortcomings.

Ignorance and Egocentricity are friends in many ways. When someone demonstrates ignorance in a particular field, subject or fact, it means that the person lacks the know-how about that subject, which might be due to a lack of education, learning, training, awareness or experience. At many times i feel ignorance is not the absence of knowledge, but the refusal to work to acquire it.

An even more dangerous aspect of ignorance, is the outward show of knowing. Pretending to know things that you barely know about. It’s important to remember that sometimes its virtually impossible to teach yourself something, because one’s mind is not capable of understanding, and perhaps we cannot realize the difference between right and wrong. Many times people are incapable of making doing certain things and they know this deep in the hearts, but still outwardly the show they understand. The strangest thing is some-how even without knowing some people are quite capable in fooling the world, that they some-how know. This can be because they are in a position of authority, and/or that people are afraid to challenge them.

Moving on i shall be discussing some basic states of Ignorance. Islamic Scholars or Ulema as we shall refer to them from here on forwards have divided ignorance (Jahl) into two types: ‘Jahl Baseet’ (Simple Ignorance), and ‘Jahl Murakkab’ (Compounded Ignorance)

It is completely normal to be ignorant about things, subjects or what not. Even a ‘Platinum level scholar’ of the highest rank such as Imam Malik, if such a term exists, was not shy about his basic unawareness of certain things.  He would often reply “I do not know” and forward the matter to those who possess knowledge about certain areas. In the modern world this is known as ‘Subject Matter Expertise’ When someone doesn’t know about a certain area, he or she is in a state of ‘Jahl Baseet’ This is a sort of basic unawareness that can be easily remedied and replaced with knowledge given the proper steps of learning and experience about that particular area.

We shall now discuss the more dangerous aspects of ignorance which is classified as ‘Jahl Murakkab.’ An individual who suffers from ‘Compounded Ignorance’ is quite deluded and sometimes unaware of the fact that he/she doesn’t really know. This is not due to the nature of their what they are made, meaning its not a material level issue, but is an internal issue due to a disease in their hearts, their ego pushing them into denial beyond limits about which they themselves have no idea about.

‘Jahl Murakkab’ causes a tendency for distorted thinking, the best solution for such individuals is to learn an exact sciences such as geometry or arithmetic. Following such a path shall free an individual from confusion and foolish behavior. Insh’Allah leading their mind and heard towards steadiness, clarity, and moderation.

Overtime the compound ignorance transforms into simple ignorance, and the afflicted individual can then be hopefully stimulated into pursuit of knowledge. If the cause of the issue lies in their method of reasoning, the individual should compare their reasoning with that of scholars of research and clear thought, that so that they shall realize their mistake. If the cause of their ignorance however is some other thing such as blind prejudice and negative feelings towards others, they should endeavor to remove them on their own behalf.

So much pressure, so much hassle in the modern world, can be resolved, if people can simply move beyond compounded ignorance into a state of simple ignorance. May knowledge fill the hearts that read this, knowledge that is beneficial not just to certain individuals, but to society and the world at large.